“We appreciate that we are in a time of austerity and cuts are being made to local government funding, however we are campaigning for a fairer distribution of the funds, so that historical imbalances where rural areas are penalised, do not continue.”

The Fens council tax bills are higher than London boroughs yet wages are lower.

It is also higher than nearby Cambridge, Ely and the Norfolk coastal town of Burnham Market, dubbed Chelsea by the sea.

Rates for an average four bedroom family home in Band D are:

• Fenland £1,742.

• Kensington and Chelsea £1,062.

• Ely £1,649.

• Cambridge £1,630.

• Burnham Market £1,633.

Cuts in grants have been difficult for all local authorities to live with over the last five years, Sparse said.

Under the four year final local Government settlement, rural areas will lose more than 31 per cent of their central Government funding, whilst urban areas, will lose about 22 per cent.

This comes after chronic under funding of rural areas by successive governments, despite the acknowledged higher cost of providing services to remote communities and the lower than average incomes of people living in them, they added.

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